God Save the King...in theaters everywhere

So I arrived safely in Bangkok last night...just in time for the monsoon season. This city is like Vegas, but only bigger. Anything goes here.

A funny story from this afternoon. I went to see Ocean's Thirteen during one of the today's biblical-sized downpours (showers would be a gross understatement). The trailers come to an end and then all of a sudden everybody in the theater stands up, as if on cue. I am thinking to myself, "what the hell is going on? Is there a fire? Are people protesting? Did they cancel the movie? In any event, I better stand up in case I need to run." It turns out that everybody stands up for a two-minute propaganda piece they play before every movie here heaping praises on the King and showing how great/strong/charitable/short a leader he is. Unfortunately, I looked around and noticed that I was the only one in the theater who was amused by it, which made me laugh even harder and out loud. Apparently, laughing during the King's propaganda promo is not well received...

Then I started thinking if anybody in the States would ever stand at attention in a movie theater for George W. Bush. Not a chance in hell. Not even in the Crawford, Texas Cineplex 14. Must be nice to be King.